TEDxBostonCollege: Speaker Series to Happen in April

For experts and innovators, this is the holy grail of achievement. Giving a TED Talk can turn one from an expert to a thought leader, representing the highest level of success in one’s craft.

For BC students and faculty who have exciting new ideas to share, their chance to spread them has come via TEDxBostonCollege on April 22, a TED event independently organized by students on campus.

One student will have the opportunity to speak at the event by taking part in the Student Speaker Competition on Feb. 15, for which applications have closed. The organizers are currently in the final round of interviews for individuals from the wider BC community who will give a talk, according to Jacob Kozhipatt, the lead curator and CSOM ’20.

“A personal campaign of mine is to make the event BC related,” said Elizabeth Kopec, the lead organizer of the event and MCAS ’18. “I think that would make TEDxBostonCollege unique as compared to other TEDx events happening.”

The event will be divided into three separate sections, each including two to three speakers. TEDxBostonCollege is looking for individuals who can discuss cutting-edge ideas and potential solutions to societal issues, all with the aim to address TED’s three central focuses: technology, entertainment, and design. Kopec also said that BC’s event will specifically focus on the theme of bringing people together.

“I’m personally interested in talks about cool designs, new ways of approaching problems, and making people passionate about some niche technology or design element,” she said.

All of the talks will be uploaded to the TED website, possibly giving speakers a chance to go viral. To appeal to a full audience of members of the BC community, speakers need to have excellent rhetorical skills, or else their presentations will not be effective.

“Someone could have the most compelling story, but if that person doesn’t have the execution and delivery, it’s not going to be a good talk,” Kopec said.

The half-day speaker series can accommodate up to 198 people in Fulton 511. Tickets initially went on sale last Friday at the TED Talks Marathon in the Vanderslice Cabaret Room.

Although one TEDx event was scheduled to occur at BC in 2013, it was cancelled due to the Boston Marathon bombings occuring that same week.

Kopec said that the response on campus has been really great so far, and that she expects it to gain more popularity as April 22 grows closer.

While only 100 tickets were on sale initially, the rest of them will be available to buy the week leading up to the event.

“Let’s celebrate an exchange of ideas in the spirit of having a positive impact on those inside and outside our own communities,” the event’s press release said.

Featured Image by Kaitlin Meeks / Photo Editor

Correction Feb. 5, 2:51 p.m.: This article has been updated to reflect that all the tickets will be sold at two different times.

TED Talks has popularized the slogan “ideas worth spreading” for the past 24 years, bringing notable speakers to an annual conference to present on topics ranging from science to technology to culture. BCTalks has adopted the same principles, bringing students from a diverse educational background to present to their peers on their research and experiences. […]